As a college freshman, I did okay at school. I rarely got the grades I should have but I always managed to do better than I could have. My problem was never answering quiz questions or completing projects, it was preparation. I’m not saying I never prepared. I spent time going over textbooks and I listened during classes. I just assumed that’s all I needed to do, and I did okay so it didn’t seem to matter. Luckily, I learned some valuable lessons and I did extremely well throughout the rest of my academic career.
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my career is the difference between preparation and proper preparation. I studied when I was a freshman, at least I spent time sitting in front of an open textbook. Looking back, I realize I was never really preparing. I was simply doing the minimum required to make myself feel like I was studying. During that freshman year, I never actually thought about how prepared I was for the tests. I just thought, ‘hey, I studied.’
Succeed In Preparation
We always tell clients to prepare like they are going to sell their agency tomorrow. A lot of them tell us that they are preparing to sell, but aren’t sure when they will actually start the process. We often find once they do start the process, they were never really preparing. They were just sitting in front of an open book.
Talking about selling with your colleagues, deciding whether you want to sell externally or perpetuate internally and projecting the value you expect to get are all parts of the preparation process. Opening a textbook is also a part of the studying process, but you actually have to engage with the text to prepare for a test. By the same token, you have to go deeper to actually prepare to sell your insurance agency.
Prepare To Succeed
You need to have detailed conversations with every shareholder around their plans and expectations for a sale. You need to map out what the ideal sale looks like for you. That map should illustrate plans for the future of your people, it should consider how you would adapt to new lines and assess where the value lies in your book of business.
If you are considering an internal perpetuation, you should start assessing the leadership abilities of the candidates. Those qualities don’t always relate directly to revenue generation or popularity. Perpetuation is about choosing the best leader, not your best employee. You can only make that choice if you engage in ongoing employee assessment.
Selling your insurance agency involves a lot of work. Whenever we engage with a client who is planning to sell, our first job is to define how profitability can be increased to add value to the agency. That task is always easier with agencies that have prepared effectively and harder with the ones that haven’t prepared at all. Like I was in my early school days, your agency probably sits somewhere in the middle. Whenever you take time to prepare for the future of your agency, make sure you are doing more than just staring at an open textbook.
Agency Valuations
As a firm, we believe answering the question “How much is my agency worth?” is part of our responsibility and the foundation of a great working relationship – even if that is further in the future. Because of this we, unlike most firms, offer insurance agency valuations for those who qualify. Click below to apply.
